When news broke yesterday that the Biden administration is in discussions to lavishly compensate certain Trump-era illegal immigrants for their troubles at the border, Texas Congressman Dan Crenshaw, a former Navy SEAL who sacrificed his right eye for this nation, made a powerful point:

“Biden wants to pay illegal immigrants $450,000 for their hardship while breaking our laws. For perspective, if a service member is killed in action, their next of kin gets an insurance payment of $400,000. Let that sink in.”

Indeed, let it sink in. Because when a country compensates those who break its laws more handsomely than it compensates those who fight and die for it, that country is sick.

We’re not talking a handful of payouts here, either. And we’re not talking $450,000 per family; we’re talking per person. As The Wall Street Journal reports:

The U.S. Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, and Health and Human Services are considering payments that could amount to close to $1 million a family, though the final numbers could shift, the people familiar with the matter said. Most of the families that crossed the border illegally from Mexico to seek asylum in the U.S. included one parent and one child, the people said. Many families would likely get smaller payouts, depending on their circumstances, the people said.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which represents families in one of the lawsuits, has identified about 5,500 children separated at the border over the course of the Trump administration, citing figures provided to it by the government. The number of families eligible under the potential settlement is expected to be smaller, the people said, as government officials aren’t sure how many will come forward. Around 940 claims have so far been filed by the families, the people said.

The total potential payout could be $1 billion or more.

Part of us says this shouldn’t surprise us, given Biden’s open-borders policy (which is to say, his policy of keeping the borders open while paying lip service to the need to close them), and given his tiresome attempts to blame-shift from his awful immigration policies to the smart, effective, and ultimately humane immigration policies of the Trump administration.

But the other part of us is, frankly, stunned by the audacity of it. For example, the plaintiffs in these lawsuits speak of the “lasting psychological trauma” endured by the children who were separated from their parents. But where was the concern of these parents for the welfare of their children when they embarked on their dangerous, arduous, and unlawful journey to penetrate our nation’s border? Why are we rewarding these people? When we arrest a criminal for breaking into a building, do we compensate him for the “lasting psychological trauma” he endured while being stuffed into the police cruiser and sent to jail? Of course not.

Here’s an idea: If the ambulance chasers at the ACLU and their fellow leftist legal groups are sincere about the “lasting psychological trauma” of the children, then by all means let’s compensate the children. Let’s fund their psychological care for as long as their parents deem it necessary. In their country of origin.

But regardless, let’s not broadcast our willingness to throw piles of money at people who come here illegally. If we think the border crisis is bad now, just wait until word of this lavish Biden payout scheme filters its way back to the tens of millions of Mexicans, Guatemalans, Hondurans, Salvadorans, Haitians, and others who’d like to take advantage of the Biden administration’s generosity with your money.

Heck, even a nation-wrecker like Barack Obama now concedes that open borders are “unsustainable.”

Human nature is sometimes confounding, but at other times it’s entirely predictable. For example, when a presidential administration announces and enforces a zero-tolerance policy toward illegal immigrants, folks stop trying to illegally immigrate. But when a presidential candidate says “all those people who are seeking asylum” should “immediately surge to the border,” well, folks pay attention. And they surge to the border.

And when word gets out that we’re rewarding illegal immigrants with $450,000 for their troubles, what on earth do we think will happen?

UPDATE: The GOP has vowed to fight this obscene transfer of wealth from the Biden administration, as Montana Republican Senator Steve Daines said he’d introduce an amendment to the upcoming defense policy bill to derail the plan.